MTS determined 19 start-ups that became the residents of the fifth enrollment of the corporate accelerator. They included four foreign projects.
Applications to the accelerator were accepted from the middle of February until the end of March, this year. In total, 550 applications were submitted, this being a record since the launch of the MTS StartUp Hub innovation center. Projects were selected by four business areas: innovations in retail sales, financial technologies, environment technologies and Industry 4.0. MTS analysts and experts selected 19 start-ups:
Innovations in Retail Sales
AppSell (Moscow, Russia) – sales of own and external digital services through offline channels based on CPA/CPO models;
Dasha.Ai (Novosibirsk, Russia) – a platform for automation of voice business processes;
Skillary (Moscow, Russia) – an AI coach for sellers in a video selfie format;
OVAL (Moscow, Russia) – a program platform to automate insurance;
Fats.ai (Tula, Russsia) – a platform to optimize testing of smartphones and tablets.
Financial Technologies
Somin.ai (Singapore) – an AI platform optimizing both traditional digital campaigns and influencer marketing in social networks;
Vintom (Warsaw, Poland) – a system of automatic creation of customized video for marketing communications;
PSYCHEA (Moscow, Russia) – a psychometric analysis of audience and customization of developed products and communications in line with a psychometric customer profile;
Cash in Advance (Moscow, Russia) – a mobile application to issue a salary advance on any day of the month at an employee’s request;
Tap2Pay (Minsk, Belarus) – a service for accepting online payments in any digital channels of the merchant: on the site, in social networks and messengers;
CoinKeeper (St Petersburg, Russia) a leading application in Russia for accounting personal finances;
Cosmovisa (Kazan, Russia) – an online service of cash refund through the charge-back procedure in case of fraud.
Industry 4.0
Navigine (Moscow, Russia) – a platform of indoor navigation and location for enterprise customers;
Peers (Moscow, Russia) – an ultra-broadband technology of location to be used in the manufacturing industry;
PREDICT-ADAPT (Paris, France) – a system of a predictive diagnostics of industrial electric motors;
VESA (Naberezhny Chelny, Russia) – onboard systems for weighing and monitoring the axle load of trucks;
ITORUM (Moscow, Russia) – an AR assistant and a remote consulting system for field personnel in the manufacturing industry.
Environment Innovations
Ninsar (St Petersburg, Russia) – navigation inside buildings, AR guides, quests and excursions;
Wild Camp (Moscow, Russia) – an online portal about travels in national parks of Russia.
In two months, the start-ups that will succeed in the acceleration will launch paid pilot projects with MTS, receive access to the company’s infrastructure, its customer base and will be able to integrate their solutions in MTS products. They will also receive an opportunity of attracting investments of the MTS corporate venture fund.
“In the corporate accelerator we note that with each new enrollment more mature start-ups come to us. There are a lot of participants in the firth enrollment that already have large customers and have been developing their products for more than one year. For example, Dasha.ai enjoys investments of a major international fund. Russian start-up Navigine is a partner of several large foreign companies. Moreover, this enrollment includes several foreign residents due to the fact that the acceleration is held online now”, Head of MTS StarUp Hub Dmitry Kurin said.
A New Offline and Online Balance: What Technologies will Face a Combustive Development
As is well known, the crisis does not create anything new, it just speeds up the current trends. “This crisis will accelerate development of tools for remote working, online entertainment and fitness, and game streaming”, Head of MTS Venture Fund Islam Midov told IA REGNUM reporter.
ИА REGNUM: What technologies will face a combustive development in the future because of the pandemic?
Islam Midov: Even now, these trends are seen by MTS digital activity index. When staying at home, citizens of large Russian cities have almost quintupled the use of cinema and video services ‑ and the demand for educational online resources has increased by 3.8 times.
Besides, the attendance of such services as e-sport, e-stores, video conference calls, tools for remote working and food delivery has doubled.
In the near future, the most significant changes will happen in those technologies that could not develop well before the recession because of restrictions and prejudice of people. These are such large areas as education, medicine and robotics, delivery and logistics management.
ИА REGNUM: How will the pandemic change user habits online and offline?
Islam Midov: This crisis will inevitably change user habits. For instance, having tried remote working, many employers and employees will want to use such a model for a long term.
It is definitely convenient in terms of waste of time optimization and reduction of costs on real estate and transport.
However, we should not think that such habits have already changed. Most people want to bring back offline elements into their lives. People want to return offline entertainments and face-to-face social engagement.
A new offline and online balance will be found, where a share of online life will be higher than before the crisis but lower than during the self-isolation period.
ИА REGNUM: In what areas will online technologies develop more: education, medicine, robotics or logistics management?
Islam Midov: Online technologies will develop in all above-mentioned areas. But there are differences in the character of development.
Thus, online education has existed and has been used for a long time already. This segment will see a linear growth of consumption of already actively used technologies owing to changed habits of the mass audience.
Medicine and robotics will face spikes in growth since online technologies were slightly used in these areas because of regulatory and other restrictions.
After the pandemic, many of these restrictions will be lifted, investments in these areas will increase, this boosting active online growth therein.
